Optimists embrace uncertainty and the extreme cases thrive on it, so was I told by an eternal pessimist. The eternal pessimist continues.. "but, because we are so uncertain about handling uncertainty, we tune ourselves in such a way that we have certainly thought of every possible eventuality before exploring an unknown event. This is done through a combination of worst-case scenario analysis, extensive deep thinking, extreme-case linking (Trying to link every event of nature to the 'unknown' act under consideration) and boringly-long self debates interspersed over sleepless nights"
What is happening in this process is that one gains 'perceived' familiarity with the unknown by 'knowing' more about it through a process of dissection and analysis of self-created hypothetical scenarios. As a result of this, the 'unknown' is now a known (at least in the mind) and that is only when you embark on the journey towards it. You call it planning. So, in essence, you still bask in the comfort of the known, though it could be perceived as an unknown by the outside world. And the real deal happens when reality has other plans. In one 'black swan spotted' event (which in simple words is a totally unexpected event), all the analyses, the calculations, the logical models in the brain goes for a toss and you realize that the unknown is indeed unknown and there is no way of predicting it. This is when one realizes the beauty of the unknown. Yes, there is fear! But the fear has an innate beauty. This beauty is something that you will understand only once you feel it. And everyone who has explored the unknown at least once (by force or by choice) is bound to feel it. It's a matter of time. In fact, the less you prepare and the sooner you embrace it, the better it is as you've realized 'been there, done that, loving it' much earlier than others . It could be backpacking, it could be scubadiving, it could be surprise gifts, it could be entrepreneurship, it could be anything that you haven't done till date. It's the beauty, the pure exhilaration, the fear, the triumph, it's the love for the unknown. The emergence of the anti-planner.
Take traveling for instance. A very good friend of mine, my own self, once exclaimed! Why do people spend money and goto strange places. Why can't they just go to a familiar place or better yet, sit at home, watch tv, roam around and so on. Then I happened to stay in an alien country for one month. The country, the people, the work everything was 'unknown'. But, it was made sure that the 'unknown' was familiarized and made into a 'known'. To do so, the trip is so perfectly planned that you just have to follow the PROCESS, corporate style. All the guidelines were in place, you travel, you meet people, you do predefined things, you return home. It was PERFECT and then one day, in fact on the very 2nd day of the trip, the 'black swan spotted' event happened. A month's work got over in the first week and I've the entire month at leisure. The PROCESS is still in place, it's just that it's not of much use anymore. And the next 3 weeks of walking on the roads, mugging scares, public transport fares, city light glares, 'do anything.. who cares' were the moments that made me fall in love. Not with a place, not with a person, but, with the unknown! "True love as they say, can only be felt. It could be different for different people, realized under different circumstances, but once you feel it, it stays there forever, ok that was exaggeration, but, it stays, at least for a life time"
"Love grows in 'those moments', they say"
I take a deep breath and take a leap of faith, literally! Head kept straight, one hand on mouthpiece, one hand on weight belt, look straight and one long stride. The next minute i'm gasping from breath wondering what's going to happen next; Will I float? Will I drown? what do I do now? and then, in a moment of elation, the air rushes through the mouthpiece into the lungs calming all questions. I move down slowly underwater staring in utter awe at the 20 foot slope leading right onto the ocean floor. The feeling of staying submerged, the feeling of standing on the magnificent ocean floor, the feeling of being one with the ocean were true 'unknowns'. I could look at and spot things as long as my eye can see, that too in water. In no time was I greeted by alien manta rays, characters popping out of 'Finding Nemo' movie, sea-turtles, scores of rainbow colored fishes, a shark-look alike at a far off distance, it was a state of conscious trance. Conscious only to hold the mouthpiece in place for breathing. The beauty of the reef, the fear of the shark, the stare of the turtle, the race with the manta, the friendship with Nemo, the weightless cave entry, during those 45 minutes, I realized once again, how deep my relationship goes with the unknown! Yes, it's beautiful, we all love beauty, whether it's with nature of with girls. But more than beauty, it's the character. The fear of drowning, the delight of breathing, the anxiety of spotting a shark, the surprise of 'meeting Nemo', the thrill of racing a manta, the awe of staring in the eye at a sea-turtle, the disappointed happiness of not encountering a shark. It's this character of the 'unknown' that makes it truly lovable
"We all love surprises, don't we?"
That's what we say. But, let's pause for a moment and assess the surprises we experience in reality. We get a 'surprise birthday party' (at least for some species of people) every year. It's a 'known' activity. In fact, if the opposite happens, of not getting a 'surprise birthday party', then it's is the 'unknown'. It's the real surprise. It makes you wonder, "Does no one care about me?", "Am I getting old?", "Did I hurt people?", "What is the purpose of life?". Never mind! These are the same thoughts that one gets as you wait for a file to download. The 'marriage day' surprise, 'valentine's day' surprise all fall in same category. And even if assuming it's a surprise, it's a phone or a perfume or a shirt or an ornament or a greeting card or a candle-light dinner. It's a 'known'. There is one master-list of days and another master-list of gifts and the entire surprise and celebration story rotates around various permutations and combinations within this set. Rarely outside it. It's very similar to the employee and company set (we're not going to digress into this now). The underlying point is that, rarely, anyone does anything out of this 'days-gifts' combinations. These are definite 'knowns' and yet, people proclaim it as an 'unknown', as "awesome surprises". How about a true unknown? "A badly sung self-composed song", "A terribly written rhyming poem', "Telling something unsaid for long", "Doing something that you never did"; These, my dear are the 'unknowns' Ok. They may not be the true unknowns, but they are the lesser knowns. Do it on a completely random day. You can still buy the phone, the perfume, the shirt, the card on any random day! But not on the day where surprising is not a surprise. The 'surprise' should happen on a 'random day' in the form of a random thoughtful act. It's the true 'unknown'. This approach lacks the coolness of the phone on birthday, the aroma of a perfume on marriage day, but it's filled with the spirit of 'unknown'. The character that you fall in love with! The character that questions your senses' ability to analyze the events and constantly proves you wrong. The character that's your intellectual buddy. The character that keeps you guessing. The character that you never get bored with! The character that you fall in love with again and again!! and again!!!
To embrace life, one must experience the unknown! The more unknowns you get to know, the more fulfilling your life becomes. Explore the unknown, Stay anti-planned!
PS: If you are my wife and reading this, "I know you and I love you more than the unknown girl I was gazing at in the lift yesterday!!" Exceptions, you know, are part of life! :) :D
What is happening in this process is that one gains 'perceived' familiarity with the unknown by 'knowing' more about it through a process of dissection and analysis of self-created hypothetical scenarios. As a result of this, the 'unknown' is now a known (at least in the mind) and that is only when you embark on the journey towards it. You call it planning. So, in essence, you still bask in the comfort of the known, though it could be perceived as an unknown by the outside world. And the real deal happens when reality has other plans. In one 'black swan spotted' event (which in simple words is a totally unexpected event), all the analyses, the calculations, the logical models in the brain goes for a toss and you realize that the unknown is indeed unknown and there is no way of predicting it. This is when one realizes the beauty of the unknown. Yes, there is fear! But the fear has an innate beauty. This beauty is something that you will understand only once you feel it. And everyone who has explored the unknown at least once (by force or by choice) is bound to feel it. It's a matter of time. In fact, the less you prepare and the sooner you embrace it, the better it is as you've realized 'been there, done that, loving it' much earlier than others . It could be backpacking, it could be scubadiving, it could be surprise gifts, it could be entrepreneurship, it could be anything that you haven't done till date. It's the beauty, the pure exhilaration, the fear, the triumph, it's the love for the unknown. The emergence of the anti-planner.
Take traveling for instance. A very good friend of mine, my own self, once exclaimed! Why do people spend money and goto strange places. Why can't they just go to a familiar place or better yet, sit at home, watch tv, roam around and so on. Then I happened to stay in an alien country for one month. The country, the people, the work everything was 'unknown'. But, it was made sure that the 'unknown' was familiarized and made into a 'known'. To do so, the trip is so perfectly planned that you just have to follow the PROCESS, corporate style. All the guidelines were in place, you travel, you meet people, you do predefined things, you return home. It was PERFECT and then one day, in fact on the very 2nd day of the trip, the 'black swan spotted' event happened. A month's work got over in the first week and I've the entire month at leisure. The PROCESS is still in place, it's just that it's not of much use anymore. And the next 3 weeks of walking on the roads, mugging scares, public transport fares, city light glares, 'do anything.. who cares' were the moments that made me fall in love. Not with a place, not with a person, but, with the unknown! "True love as they say, can only be felt. It could be different for different people, realized under different circumstances, but once you feel it, it stays there forever, ok that was exaggeration, but, it stays, at least for a life time"
"Love grows in 'those moments', they say"
I take a deep breath and take a leap of faith, literally! Head kept straight, one hand on mouthpiece, one hand on weight belt, look straight and one long stride. The next minute i'm gasping from breath wondering what's going to happen next; Will I float? Will I drown? what do I do now? and then, in a moment of elation, the air rushes through the mouthpiece into the lungs calming all questions. I move down slowly underwater staring in utter awe at the 20 foot slope leading right onto the ocean floor. The feeling of staying submerged, the feeling of standing on the magnificent ocean floor, the feeling of being one with the ocean were true 'unknowns'. I could look at and spot things as long as my eye can see, that too in water. In no time was I greeted by alien manta rays, characters popping out of 'Finding Nemo' movie, sea-turtles, scores of rainbow colored fishes, a shark-look alike at a far off distance, it was a state of conscious trance. Conscious only to hold the mouthpiece in place for breathing. The beauty of the reef, the fear of the shark, the stare of the turtle, the race with the manta, the friendship with Nemo, the weightless cave entry, during those 45 minutes, I realized once again, how deep my relationship goes with the unknown! Yes, it's beautiful, we all love beauty, whether it's with nature of with girls. But more than beauty, it's the character. The fear of drowning, the delight of breathing, the anxiety of spotting a shark, the surprise of 'meeting Nemo', the thrill of racing a manta, the awe of staring in the eye at a sea-turtle, the disappointed happiness of not encountering a shark. It's this character of the 'unknown' that makes it truly lovable
"We all love surprises, don't we?"
That's what we say. But, let's pause for a moment and assess the surprises we experience in reality. We get a 'surprise birthday party' (at least for some species of people) every year. It's a 'known' activity. In fact, if the opposite happens, of not getting a 'surprise birthday party', then it's is the 'unknown'. It's the real surprise. It makes you wonder, "Does no one care about me?", "Am I getting old?", "Did I hurt people?", "What is the purpose of life?". Never mind! These are the same thoughts that one gets as you wait for a file to download. The 'marriage day' surprise, 'valentine's day' surprise all fall in same category. And even if assuming it's a surprise, it's a phone or a perfume or a shirt or an ornament or a greeting card or a candle-light dinner. It's a 'known'. There is one master-list of days and another master-list of gifts and the entire surprise and celebration story rotates around various permutations and combinations within this set. Rarely outside it. It's very similar to the employee and company set (we're not going to digress into this now). The underlying point is that, rarely, anyone does anything out of this 'days-gifts' combinations. These are definite 'knowns' and yet, people proclaim it as an 'unknown', as "awesome surprises". How about a true unknown? "A badly sung self-composed song", "A terribly written rhyming poem', "Telling something unsaid for long", "Doing something that you never did"; These, my dear are the 'unknowns' Ok. They may not be the true unknowns, but they are the lesser knowns. Do it on a completely random day. You can still buy the phone, the perfume, the shirt, the card on any random day! But not on the day where surprising is not a surprise. The 'surprise' should happen on a 'random day' in the form of a random thoughtful act. It's the true 'unknown'. This approach lacks the coolness of the phone on birthday, the aroma of a perfume on marriage day, but it's filled with the spirit of 'unknown'. The character that you fall in love with! The character that questions your senses' ability to analyze the events and constantly proves you wrong. The character that's your intellectual buddy. The character that keeps you guessing. The character that you never get bored with! The character that you fall in love with again and again!! and again!!!
To embrace life, one must experience the unknown! The more unknowns you get to know, the more fulfilling your life becomes. Explore the unknown, Stay anti-planned!
PS: If you are my wife and reading this, "I know you and I love you more than the unknown girl I was gazing at in the lift yesterday!!" Exceptions, you know, are part of life! :) :D
1 comment:
Lesson learnt. Anti-planning is the new order.
But one other observation that stands out in this post is - Get your ass off the couch and go mingle with the world. It is only when you are one with the world that you are exposed to uncertainty and only then can you enjoy the beauty of the unknown :)
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